08-03-14The great Indian election season has started. The Chief Election Commissioner has announced the General Elections 2014.

Something new has happened this season. The Congress party has beat BJP in announcing its candidate for Bilaspur constituency. Karuna Shukla, has been selected to contest from Bilaspur as the Congress candidate.

The niece of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Karuna Shukla was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) until 25 October 2013. She has quit the party after the BJP had neglected her for the 2013 state elections.

She had joined the Indian National Congress on 27 Feb 2014.

She had won the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 from Janjgir constituency as a BJP candidate. In 2009, she had again contested as a BJP candidate from Korba but lost to Congress party's Charan Das Mahant.

04-10-11Anna Hazare has said that he will campaign against the Congress in the 5 states that are scheduled to go to polls next year, if Jan-Lokpal Bill is not passed during the Winter Session of Parliament.

This ultimatum has been given by India's anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare to the Government of India. He has also said that if his demands are not met, he will sit on a three day fast in Lucknow starting on the eve of the Uttar Pradesh State Elections. He was speaking at a press conference in Ralegan Siddhi.

It may be recalled that Anna Hazare had withdrawn his 12-day hunger strike at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi after the parliament unanimously passed a resolution accepting the points laid-out in the Jan-Lokpal Bill. The Parliament had indicated that there was a need only to iron out the constitutionally unacceptable terms and rework the legal language. The Jan-Lokpal Bill had been sent to the Standing Committee for consideration alongwith the resolution of the parliament.

Anna Hazare enjoys the support of the common man who had respected Anna's wishes and ensured that there was no violence during the 12-day fasting which had started on 16-August.

16-08-11Anna Hazare has been arrested by Delhi Police from his residence at Mayur Vihar today morning as he was preparing to leave for today's fast.

Anna Hazare and two of his team members courted arrest outside the flat in which they were staying after the police prevented them from coming out. The event occurred early in the morning (around 8am IST).

The veteran crusader against corruption in India was scheduled to start his indefinite hunger strike today morning at J. P. Park in New Delhi.

Anna and his team have been demanding that the government enact a strong Lokpal Bill. He had earlier gone on fast in April this year on the same issue.

He had broken his fast after the government had assured him that a Lokpal bill would be enacted soon. A joint committee of government representatives - Ministers and members of Anna's team was consitituted to formulate the draft of the bill.

The relations between the Ministers and Anna's team had soured by June. The government went ahead and tabled its version of the Lokpal Bill in the Parliament during the monsoon session.

Anna and his team had rejected the government's version of the bill saying that it was too dilute and had no teeth. They have been since protesting for a strong Lokpal Bill.

24-11-10Nitish Kumar led JD(U) and BJP combine are headed for a clear majority in the 243 seater Bihar Assembly. Out of the 158 trends that are available JD(U)+BJP is ahead in 117 seats. It is way ahead of the RJD + LJP combine which has leads in only 30 seats.

The surprise element coming forward in today's counting is the dismal performance by the Indian National Congress which is leading in only 1 seat.

At 10:20am, Election Commission of India has shown the trends for 158 seats on its results portal.

Party

Leads

JD(U)

64

BJP

53

RJD

22

LJP

8

Others

11

Bihar polls were conducted in a full month from 21st October to 20th November in six phases, in which over 50% of the 5.5 crore voters exercised their franchise.

24-11-10Less than 2 hours into the counting and Nitish heads for 2nd round at Chief Ministership of the state.

At 9:40am, Election Commission of India has shown the trends for 52 seats on its results portal.

Party

Leads

JD(U)

21

BJP

19

RJD

6

LJP

5

Others

5

Early trends place outgoing Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) and its partner in a very strong position. The JD(U)+BJP are leading in 36. Their nearest competition RJD+LJP is way back with only 11 seats heading in their favour.

Nitish Kumar's development based governance model appears to be in position to trounce all opposition this polls.

21-10-10Today is the voting day for the first phase of Bihar Assembly polls. More than 1 crore electors will seal the fate of 631 candidates across 47 constituencies in the electronic voting machines in Bihar state.

Early last month, the Election Commission had announced that it was required to constitute a new legislative assembly before 27 Nov 2010 and had accordingly announced a six phase election schedule so that it would be able announce the results by 24-Nov-2010.

The state has a 243 seat assembly.

Today in the first phase, polling will be done for 47 assembly seats. There are 631 candidates in the fray, including 52 women.

Here is a party-wise summary of the candidates...

BSP

45

BJP

21

CPI

11

CPI(M)

07

INC

47

NCP

33

JD(U)

26

LJP

16

RJD

31

Other Parties

156

Independents

238

The second phase of polling is scheduled for Sunday, when voting will be done for 45 seats.

29-09-10The court of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has been declared a no-access zone for Thursday 30-Sep-2010. On this day, the court is scheduled to deliver its judgement on one of the country's most sensitive issues - the Ramjanmabhoomi - Babri Masjid Land Dispute.

The three member bench of Justice D. V. Sharma, Justice S. U. Khan and Justice Sudhir Agrawal will deliver the verdit in the 60 year old title suit in Court No 1 at the High Court in Lucknow at 3:30pm.

Security has been beefed up and the High Court premises have virtually been transformed into a fortress. Only persons connected to the suit will be allowed entry into the Court and no one will be permitted to exit the room until the verdict is complete.

About 1500 people have been detained from across Lucknow, and almost 2000 security personnel including paramilitary forces have been deployed to ensure peace in the city.

The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court had originally set 24-Sep-2010 for delivering the judgement. This had to be delayed when a retired bureaucrat filed a petitiion in the Supreme Court seeking a deferment of the judgement. The hurdle was finally cleared when a bench headed by Chief Justice of India rejected the petition on 28-Sep-2010.

28-09-10The Supreme Court has ruled that it will not defer the judgement by the Allahabad High Court in the Ramjanmabhoomi - Babri Masjid land dispute case.

The decision was given by the 3 judge bench of Supreme Court at 2 pm after hearing the deferment plea in the morning. The hearing had begun promptly at 10:30 am

Advocate General G. E. Vahanvati, who appeared before the bench lead by Chief Justice of India, said at the hearing that settlement would be the most preferred solution in the case but it has not taken place. He had further added that uncertainity which was prevailing should not be allowed.

The Advocate General was in court on behalf of Government of India in the case.

The judgement by the High Court scheduled on 24 Sep 2010 had been put off in response to a petition by a retired bureaucrat for deferring the High Court's judgement. Today's decision by the Supreme Court has cleared the way allowing the High Court of Allahabad to deliver its decision on the 60 year old title suit.

23-09-10The judgement on the long-running, sensitive Ayodhya religious site ownership dispute scheduled for tomorrow (24 September 2010) has been deferred.

The Supreme Court of India has prevented the High Court of Allahabad from passing the judgement tomorrow. The apex court has said that it would hear the petition by Ramesh Chandra Tripathi, on 28 September.

The division bench of Justice R. V. Raveendran and Justice H. L. Gokhale has asked Attorney General Goolam E. Vahanvati to be present in the court for the hearing on that day to assist it on behalf of the Union Government.

The High Court of Allahabad had earlier indicated that it would deliver its judgement on the long standing dispute of ownership of the Ram Janma Bhoomi and Babri Masjid on 24 September 2010.

Looking into the sensitivity of this case, the Government of India and several state governments had stepped up internal security to prevent any escalation of violence.